It’s almost been a year since I was inspired by Jeff Johnson’s COTA Challenge and started up my own. I haven’t been posting about it a lot lately, because much of the initial fun factor has worn off, and it’s been replaced by what has become a natural process of utilizing public transit to go from point A to B. I ride a couple times a week, as does Anne, and for the most part we have a very positive experience with COTA. The buses are typically timely, clean, and reliable.
The reason I’m bringing all of this up is because I was a COTA maniac this morning. I had three meetings scheduled around downtown (all in coffee shops now that I’m thinking about it) and I really didn’t feel like driving or worrying about parking, or paying to park. We’ve got a bus pass ($45/mo) so it almost feels free to ride the bus when compared to digging out a dollar or two to feed a meter for an hour.
So this morning, I set off early… around 7am. Used Google Transit to figure out which bus to hop on (#16) and the Real-Time Tracker to see where that bus was at. Waited until it was close, walked over to the nearest bus stop, waited 30 seconds, and hopped on the bus.
Ride was about 8 minutes into downtown. Got off the #16 at Spring & High, crossed the street, and hopped on a #4 headed north. Wait time: zero seconds. Got lucky with my timing there. Usually about a five minute (or less) wait for a north-bound High Street bus.
Rode it up High for 5 minutes, got off it at the Convention Center and walked to my first meeting at MoJoe Lounge on The Cap.
Left there an hour later, crossed the street and got on a south-bound #2. Had to wait about 3-4 minutes for it.
Rode it the five minutes back into Downtown. Got off at Gay & High, crossed the street and went into Cafe Brioso for my next meeting.
Left Brioso an hour later and went to the north-bound stop for High Street. Got on a #2 that was pulling up. Wait time: 30 second. Again, good timing for me today.
Rode it 8 minutes up to Cuppy’s Coffee near First & High. Hopped off, crossed the street, and went inside for meeting number three.
After that, I was ready to head home. Walked to the nearest stop on High, waited about 5 minutes, and hopped on the south-bound #2 for the 5 minute ride back into Downtown.
Got off at Gay & High, crossed the street, and waited about 6 minutes for the next #16 to take me home. I could have got on a #11 a few minutes earlier, which also could take me home, but it does some extra zig-zagging through Downtown and usually ends up being a little slower of a ride. The #16 took me about 10 minutes to get home. Lots of people getting off & on at every stop.
Sound confusing? Intimidating? Really it wasn’t. As I said earlier, I’ve been riding for less than a year and this has already become second nature to me. None of my trips today took any more than 10-15 minutes to get me from point A to point B. Granted, I did get lucky with some of my timing, and I was making some pretty short trips here and there. But when you factor in the slowness of driving up and down High Street in a car, looking for parking, paying for parking, worrying about expiring meters, and all of the rest of that sort of thing, I think my time was well spent with the few extra minutes here and there relaxing on the bus.
Anyone else been riding COTA lately? Any stories to share?
Hi Walker. It is Susan - I did some work for the 614 pilot issue - I have been lurking here and the Columbus Underground. We live in the burbs now - but I used to do the bus all the time when I worked downtown.
But I had to laugh - my youngest loves to ride the bus - so we often drive to Clintonville - jump on the #2 and head downtown…
I wish we had a train or something - when I am in German - I ride the train all the time or the bus or the street car!
I think you were lucky with timing!
The day your described above are the types of days I enjoy most on the bus. Some time here, some time there, zig, zag, in and out. There’s very little waiting and while is may sound a bit goofy, it makes me feel like I’m living more ‘metropolitan’ than most days in Columbus typically permit.
Hi Susan! Yeah, I got lucky today. Last Friday I came out of a meeting at the new Dunkin Donuts at the corner of Broad & High to see my #6 rolling past. I waited at the corner for one of three other busses to come by and spent a good 15 minutes freezing before a #10 rolled up. It’s always the coldest days that I’m unlucky with my timing.
Jeff, I totally agree. While the buses aren’t quite as “sexy” as riding some form of rail transit, I do feel like quite the urbanite zipping around off and on buses without the hassle of the car to slow me down.
I feel like quite the urban neophyte saying this, but your experience sounds freaking awesome, especially knowing that it all went down in Columbus. It makes me wish there were more COTA love on on the outskirts of town.
I’ve always been hesitant to move farther into Columbus proper, mostly due to my desire to be close to my workplace; nevertheless, I wonder if taking advantage of more public transportation would offset a longer commute to and from work.
An experiment for another year, perhaps…
Derek: Yeah, I was pretty amazed when I started riding again about the service that we do have existing here. I agree that the suburban service could use some improvements, but low-density development is very hard to provide adequate mass transit service of any type. COTA does do some good park & rides in the burbs, but that usually doesn’t help you if you’re just looking to head a mile or two down the street for coffee. I think eventually we’ll get there though.
(fingers crossed)
Also… I’ve lived in the central area of the city for 10 years now, and during much of that time I worked in the suburbs… for a long time near Easton, and awhile in Grove City too. I never took the bus to work (although I’d be more than willing to give it a shot today) but I will say that having the reverse commute (out of downtown in the morning, into downtown in the evening) was a dream. Couldn’t help but laugh at the bumper to bumper traffic in the opposite direction as everyone else tried to get into downtown in the morning, and back out in the evening.
I would ride the bus much more often if I could buy a card, and then just put like $10 on it or whatever whenever I needed it. Like you can do with a subway pass or metro card.
I don’t ride enough to need a monthly (especially when it’s warm since I bike nearly everywhere).
But I don’t usually carry around coins or paper money.
I totally agree. I hear that request a lot. I’ve been hearing folks at COTA bringing it up from time to time too, so maybe someday it will materialize.
Let’s hope so!
that bus pass does come in quite handy!